KUALA LUMPUR, July 29 — The Digital Ministry proposes to establish a Malaysian Data Commission to enable adequate frameworks and policies to be developed to protect people’s data and promote the use of data centres in the country.

Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo said that to establish the commission, the ministry plans to amend the Personal Data Protection Act 2010, which is expected to be tabled in Parliament next March or middle of next year, he told reporters after the signing ceremony of a cooperation agreement between Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB) and Cybersecurity Malaysia to enhance cyber security of Malaysia’s 5G networks here today.

"New technologies are becoming increasingly dependent on artificial intelligence (AI) and governments are aware that the most important aspect for the success of this industry is to strengthen the data centres segment.

"That’s why the government has focused on bringing big investments, especially in the segment, which we see investments from Google, Microsoft, ByteDance and so forth and the amount of investment is quite large,” he said.

According to Gobind, currently Malaysia has a data committee and commissioner.

"So what I want to focus on is to use the platform and develop this committee first, and moving forward, we will propose to the government that this committee be made a data commission so that it can focus more on the data aspects,” he added. — Bernama